RIO NEGRO PARADISE: MANAUS, BRAZILBird the rainforests and rivers of the mighty Amazon and Negro in an unforgettable mix of forest hikes and live-aboard luxury.
$5475 (2008 fee). 15 days See our 2007 or 2006 or 2005 triplist.
The city of Manaus, gateway to one of the greatest avifaunas on Earth, is a place every birder who’s ever dreamed of birding the Amazon has got to visit. Our tour of the Rio Negro begins near Manaus with a three-night stay in the remote forest camp of the famous Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Projects. Get ready for some serious nightbirding here as we go for White-winged and Rufous potoos on a fabulous system of forest trails; we have a stellar track record to keep intact! By day we’ll be dealing with mixed-species flocks and searching for raiding swarms of army ants between visits to leks of such world-class cotingas as Guianan Cock-of-the-rock, Capuchinbird, and Guianan Red-Cotinga. To get at those canopy flocks and scan for prizes like Crimson Fruitcrow, Pompadour Cotinga, and eye-level macaws, we’ll ascend an amazing tower forty-two meters tall and surrounded by untouched forest as far as the binocular can see. Then it’s down to the Negro herself where we’ll board our private boat for several days in the singularly beautiful Anavilhanas Archipelago and remote and unspoiled Jaú National Park, eastern section of the second-largest conservation area in the world and home to numerous special birds, such as Bar-bellied Woodcreeper and Chestnut-crested and Yapacana antbirds. We’ll also bird the lower Rio Solimões, that section of the Amazon west of the meeting of the waters with the Negro, and spend a morning on the north bank of the Amazonas to pick up a few specialties there. Our boat is nigh-on luxurious, featuring private (two bunks), air-conditioned cabins with private bathrooms, and great meals any time we want them. The open-air top deck is a great spot for an icy caipirinha, national drink of Brazil. Life is grand out on these rivers; there’s nothing to do but bird, eat, and sleep! Can we really do the Manaus area justice in just a couple of weeks? The answer is “No.” We are learning that it could take a lifetime to sleuth out her many avian secrets. And we won’t even take time to cross the Amazon; that would entail simply too much (so we’ll leave southern Amazonia for separate tours at Caxiuanã: Amazonian Brazil & the Golden Parakeet and Alta Floresta & the Northern Pantanal!) Join Bret and a small group of birders and discover why we feel that the Rio Negro is paradise in the Amazon. This tour may be combined with Caxiuanã: Amazonian Brazil & the Golden Parakeet, south of the Amazon near the mouth of the great Rio Xingú.
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